Bloodline Release Stream

DJ Johnson

Did you think of making a harem for lindon in the past? How many books till cradle ends?

Will Wight

I don't necessarily see these two things as linked, but I will try to answer this together. No, that never occurred to me. That was not something that I ever had as an idea. There was a time when there was a lot of pressure on me to have him go through a thorough romantic life, so therefore he would have multiple love interests. Some of the romantic relationships would end badly or end soon. But that would've taken up a lot of the books and I didn't want to write it, so there you go. 

Three more left, and I've got my work cut out for me. There's a lot coming, as the several hundred people who have already finished Bloodline can tell you.

Questioner

Can you explain the difference between Herald and a Sage?

Will Wight

Yes

Questioner

If Crusher's strength works on a conceptual level and Tartarus steel's durability works on a conceptual level, what would happen if Crusher tried to break Tartarus steel?

Will Wight

That depends on whether Crusher's conceptual ability to destroy it outranks the Tartarus steel's ability to be indestructible. I'll either get into that at the end of Cradle or I'll get into it in the next Traveler's Gate series, but there are ranks to that sort of thing. When the principals that outrank physical laws come into contact, it depends on which one outranks the other one.

Questioner

Will we ever get to see the Iteration with the strongest power level?

Will Wight

I don't know. Good question.

Questioner

Is Mu Enkai dead?

Will Wight

Mu Enkai is not only dead, but he - somebody asked earlier about the afterlife in Cradle and I'm going to give a non-canon answer. Mu Enkai died and his soul went to Cradle Hell, and then it was killed again. So, he's double dead. He's the deadest man in all of history. There has never been anyone as dead as Mu Enkai is now dead. It set a record, as a matter of fact.

Questioner

We all know your preferred spiritual elixir, the Oreo. Now we need to know despised food and spiritual food, IRL and in the books.

Will Wight

So... My most despised food are red bell peppers. I can't eat 'em. I just can't do it. I cannot eat red bell peppers. Anything with red bell peppers in it, if I smell red bell peppers, I will die. It is the worst, I can't taste them. Anything with them in there. And one of the big problems is with a lot of this frozen foods they don't have a whole lot of flavor so they add red bell peppers to it in order to give 'em a little bit of color and flavor and I can't; I can't do it; I just can't do it. And a lot of cheap crab cakes too. They just add red peppers to it. And I love crab cakes, but I can't do it.

Will Wight

What favorite spiritual food... most despised spiritual reward. I don't know what that means. I guess maybe like if red peppers gave you a power, what would it be?  It would be something related to venom aura or poisonous madra because they are toxic and the food of death.

Questioner

There has been debate about exactly what happened when Northstrider took Dross from Lindon but ended up letting Lindon join. Did Lindon prevent the spatial opening from fully closing? Did he start re-opening it? Or did Northstrider just feel Lindon's strength of desire and decided to re-open it and bring him? What exactly happened?

Will Wight

Good Question. Siiiiiiiiiip ((looks directly at the camera and sips loudly))

Questioner

What is the weirdest thing you have written but cut from the series? The thing you look back on and think "what was I thinking"?

Will Wight

I think, probably, the number one thing that I regret or think is weird, is names and terms. That's the weird stuff. I shared in the blog a while back that I had a pokemon trader vibe for Ziel and I wrote out that character thing and nah; just nah. So I cut that stuff and then I look back and I go... no. But then usually it's just names. I have to come up with so many name ideas before one sticks that inevitably I have one that's really stupid.

Will Wight

One of the other things, as I was starting writing Cradle, I was coming up with these ways where I wanna make it clear that this is inspired by Chinese cultivation fantasy, but doesn't take place in China. Even mythological china. It's also inspired by a lot of Korean and Tibetan mythology and all this stuff as well. But it's primarily, especially early, these Chinese cultivation novels. So, I was like "how do I show that?" and I had a lot of bad ideas for that. Not really. I mean I was just brain-storming, so I  on all these tropes I could take over, but didn't work. So I ended up striking a balance I was pretty happy with.

Questioner

Are the animated attacks of a Sage just will/authority giving them versatility or are their attacks actually living?

Will Wight

Read and find out.

Questioner

In your last stream, you compared the Valinhall Incarnation to Overlords from Cradle. Since Simon with the mask is equal-ish to an Incarnation, would that make White Light Simon somewhere within the realm of Archlords? The boost seemed like it was pretty big.

Will Wight

It's hard to make these comparisons. I think I probably said is that Lindon as an Underlord or Overlord is roughly physically compatible with Simon  when he's using the mask and going full power. That's probably true, but Lindon can also shoot disintegrating fire from his hands. There's a lot that Cradle has a lot for more deadly powers than Valinhall does. I would say that Simon would be outclassed in Cradle pretty quickly. At least as he is now.

Questioner

Did the Emperor from Elder Empire have any authority?

Will Wight

I really wanted to answer that in the literal sense in that yes, he did have authority; he was the ruler of the world. But I know what you're asking and I'd say yes. Yes he did.

Questioner

In Lindon's original timeline did his father Jaran take his own life, die in combat, or just leave the clan?

Will Wight

That is up to interpretation. Lindon doesn't know; he didn't see. So who knows. Probably a little bit of all of that. So he probably went out, found a fight he knew he was going to lose, and went out fighting.

Questioner

What's your opinion on adverbs and passive voice?

Will Wight

Negative? A lot of people demonize adverbs. I do not think adverbs and adjectives are necessarily wrong. When we overuse them of course they're a problem. But I think it's a tool like anything else. Passive voice is just generally worse than active voice in most cases.

Questioner

What was your backup plan if your writing never took off?

Will Wight

Writing was the backup plan. I always wanted to write, but the reason it was the backup plan is that I assumed it wasn't gonna work.

The plan was to get a job. Preferably teaching because I had taught during grad school at UCF. I was planning to get a job teaching English somewhere and I just assumed I was going to have to. I didn't consider it a backup plan. I considered it a, I'm going to make a couple hundred bucks so I can survive the summer so I can apply for another teaching position. But the books worked so I never had to do that.

Questioner

When you wrote Akura Grace, did you you write her with the intentions of killing her off?

Will Wight

((Warns against Wintersteel spoilers despite this being a launch stream for next book))

No, not particularly. I wrote her in Uncrowned to be another Akura to be another notable person in this generation. Then I realized I was going to use her again in Winter Steel. And then she just kind of worked out. I sort of killed most of those people. Interesting

Questioner

What is your favorite scene in Cradle?

Will Wight

I think I answered that earlier. It's the Dross scene at the end of Ghostwater. Because it was difficult for me to write and it came out well.

Questioner

Have you ever traveled abroad?

Will Wight

Yes I have. I have been to Guatemala, Honduras, Spain. Canada if that counts as abroad. Florida counts as abroad so the rest of the United States counts as one and then Florida counts as it's own thing. And I have been to Alaska. And Germany. And Israel.

The reason why "Canada, if that counts" is not because Canada isn't a different country, it's because with Canada all you have to do is cross the boarder. I wasn't saying Canada is part of the United States.

Questioner

Have you read any of the Dragon Heart books?

Will Wight

I don't think so. Dragon Heart sounds like a title... let me Google it. I've seen the movie. I don't know which of these is the Dragon Heart you mean. I've read the Dragon Riders of Pern.

Questioner

Is there any way to get your books into libraries?

Will Wight

Yes. I think they are in some libraries. I just don't know how to get them in every library. I don't know how that works, frankly.

Helpful Gnome Assistant

You can request them in your public library, wherever you live and they'll make it happen.

Will Wight

Typically you can request a book and they can get it took you. Some kind of shared book program.

Questioner

If the Way existed on our world would Florida have it’s own icon? If so would you possess Florida authority?

Will Wight

Well I would have authority over all of Florida, I think. It would colloquially be known as the Swamp Icon. It would be a gator halfway disappearing into some muck. I would gain the ability to turn things into swamps, survive in swamps, and permanent sunscreen.

Questioner

You said before that in Wintersteel, you mostly cut Yan Shoumei's stuff like her backstory. Would you consider turning them into a short story?

Will Wight

I'm going to be honest with you, I don't remember scenes I cut from Wintersteel.

So it's been a while. I don't remember which Yan Shoumei scenes I kept and which ones I did not. I don't really remember. So it's hard for me to answer. There was some stuff about her being abandoned as a baby and raised by a group of fishermen then she's kind of representing her city and Anagi was a local Archlord who was sort of pushing her out. I had all that in there, but I don't remember if that made it to the final book or not. Someone will have to tell me.

There was an extra fight scene between Yerin and Yan Shoumei and Calan Archer.

Questioner

When someone like a Monarch from Cradle ascends, how do they rank up in terms of power among the Abidan? Do powerful individuals get to skip lower Abidan ranks compared to less powerful new recruits?

Will Wight

We'll explore that a little bit, I think. I think that's something I'm going to go into in the future. But, definitely the more powerful you were, you get to skip some things when you ascend. One of the things is, a lot more people ascend than are considered to be recruits for the Abidan. I sort of implied this a little bit [unintelligible] the books, but I didn't really go into it. But, a lot more people ascend on their own than are considered Abidan recruits, either because of talent, or temperament, or they just don't want to, yada yada yada. There's a lot of reasons why you could ascend from your world and then not be recruited into the Abidan. So powerful individuals coming in would be higher priority recruits and would get to skip some of the extra hoops that other people have to jump through.

Questioner

What are the lifespans of the different advancement stages?

Will Wight

You get into the hundreds of years, easily 200 years as an Underlord. 100-200 years more as Overlord. Archlord would be high hundreds. Functionally, people on Cradle don't ever live to their maximum lifespan. The more advanced into the sacred arts you go, the more risks you start taking. So then at Sage and Herald it's functionally an unlimited lifespan. It's not technically unlimited and you'd live for several thousand years before you died. There're ways to extend that though. If you wanted to live forever you could.

Questioner

Is it possible for a sage to get all the icons?

Will Wight

No, that is not possible.

Questioner

Who'd win in a game of chess? The Eldest Nye or Eithan?

Will Wight

I feel like the Eldest Nye would win, but he'd be annoyed by the game. Eithan would be very annoying the entire time. He wouldn't care whether he'd won or not. The Eldest Nye would win the game, but he wouldn't have a good game with Eithan annoying him.

Questioner

Who did Estyr have children with?

Will Wight

Her husband.

Questioner

Would it be possible to add a new district onto Elysia or is it too stable to be changed that drastically?

Will Wight

At this point, it's probably too stable.

Questioner

Who is your fourth favorite character in Cradle?

Will Wight

*long pause* Yerin

Questioner

Since sacred beasts can become sentient over time, do advanced ones view ownership of sacred beasts akin to slavery? For example, Eithan says his family owned a breeding pair of Heavenly Sky Tigers. What would Reigan Shen think of that?

Will Wight

By and large, its kind of like how humans think of monkeys. So, if it's not a sentient sacred beast, they don't really care. It's just an animal to them as well. They eat non-sentient sacred beasts. So its just a distinction between are you sentient or are you not sentient. That's it. While virtually any animal can become sentient by absorbing aura, its so far removed that that's not considered something that anybody really worries about. Unless they have developed sentience, in which case, then they're off limits. And that counts as effectively cannibalism in their world, if you ate a sentient creature.

Questioner

Fisher Gesha Spinoff?

Will Wight

100%. It's gonna be romantic comedy following Fisher Gesha's dating life as she goes around and really just lives it up. It's kind of like Golden Girls, but its one girl. So, it's Spider Girl, but not the comic.

Ben

What would a fire and dream path be like? Burn the body and mind? 

Will Wight

Yeah, burn the body and mind, burn the psyche, burn memories away. That sort of thing.

Omega

What is the difference between a soulsmith's inheritance and a soulsmith's Legacy?

Will Wight

I think they are just different terms for the same thing, but I don't exactly recall what you are talking about, so I would have to look that up.

Chris

Will you ever write death matches again?

Will Wight

I assume so, at some point. The problem is that I always have other things to work on. So, I didn't realize this until today, but I've released 4 books in the last 365 days. So, that's a lot. That's a lot of books. There's always more to work on. I'm always trying to make it more efficient, always trying to work on the next book and short stories are never important or urgent. They are always kind of low on the totem pole and while I enjoy writing them and people enjoy reading them and I would like to get back to them, it's hard to find time to do that when I could be working on another book, for instance.

Purplish

Do Presences (or spirits like Dross) have to do what they're told? What if they don’t like the person whose brain they’re a part of?

Will Wight

Wow, that's a really good question. So the way Presences work is they have to, uh, they have varying degrees of personality and individuality. So obviously Dross is on the higher scale of that. Whereas Suriel keeps hers toned down. So they still have a sense of identity and they still have a sense of - I can't name the word I'm thinking of, so I'm going to skip it. They still understand who they are and they are individuals, but they don't necessarily - you do kind of form a partnership, but it's either- sometimes they don't really mind. But every once in a while you would have conflict. Some people even prefer that, they prefer to have somebody who will talk back to them. You see that a little bit with Suriel in book one. She likes having a voice to debate. 

[chopping trees]

So some people even like having the debate, but... you would get another one. You would get another Presence or alter it so that it fits more if you really can't resolve your differences. But typically you're getting one that's supposed to- [knocking over trees] So yeah, you would typically get assigned a Presence, based on one that would work well with you so they usually don't make that mistake. But if somehow you end up in a conflict with your Presence you would just get another one. 

Questioner

Do the Abidan get vacations?

Will Wight

Yes.

Questioner

Will we see Lindon again after the 12th Cradle book?

Will Wight

Maybe. Maybe.

Questioner

Do you put things into the series knowing full well they will become memes?

Will Wight

Not necessarily. I mean I do the bloopers that way. So, of course the bloopers are memes in and of themselves. Other than that, they only things I do, are I include memes that are currently in the fandom, reference them in series. So, there were a couple of people that didn't like that the Winter Sage referenced "Blerin", which was the fan name for Yerin's blood shadow and so there was people that didn't like that because that was a fandom meme and it brought them out of the story. And I'm going "I'm sorry, I understand not liking that, I get that. I understand having that opinion. I'm not gonna stop doing stuff like that though, because I enjoy it." And it's not something that she necessarily wouldn't have suggested. It was something that wasn't out of character for the character to suggest and it was something that only makes sense, you only get it if you understand the fandom. For people that didn't know that was a nickname, it wouldn't seem out of place, it would just be a joke. So, I don't mind that kind of thing at all, I'll write that kind of thing in. And that's never going away, that's just gonna be part of my writing style.

Questioner

Will we ever hear more about the Weeping Dragon and the Silent King?

Will Wight

Nope. They're never coming out. Those two Dreadgods will remain forever anonymous. 

Questioner

Is it in anyway disappointing that Cradle has been more successful than Elder Empire?

Will Wight

It's hard to say that Cradle has been disappointing in any way. Cradle has vastly exceeded my expectations. So, I can't in good conscience say that Cradle has disappointed me at all. But, I mean, I guess, sort of, I do wish Elder Empire had been more successful, but isn't that kind of like of course I do, it'd be great if everybody loved every series I write. But, I didn't have any real expectations of that, there's no blame or anything like that. The only thing that I feel a little bit disappointed in, I guess, is I put a lot more work in Elder Empire than I initially did into Cradle. Now at this point in Cradle, I'm trying hard. But, it was a lot harder to write Elder Empire. The minimum standard of Elder Empire is a lot higher, it's just difficult to write. So, when you put that much effort into something and people enjoy it less than they do the thing you put less effort into, that is difficult. But, nowadays there's not that difference. Now writing Cradle, after basically Soulsmith, I put just as much effort into Cradle, but it's a lot more straightforward, it's a lot easier to write, basically. It's easier and people like it more. It feels better when you're effort is proportional to the response, but that's not always the case. So, there you go.

Questioner

In Bamfious's interview you said you changed Lindon's love interest because of Bamfious's bet. Were you telling the truth when you answered that or were you teasing Bamf?

Will Wight

I think it's pretty clear that I never joke around, ever. And that every answer I provide is absolutely serious and you should take me seriously at all times. 

Lil' Blue

Would the characters from Kung Fu Panda be considered Sacred Beasts?

Will Wight

Absolutely.

Questioner

What is the goldsteel thing for?

Will Wight

I assume you mean this on the hat. And this is the logo for Bloodline. It's the cover of Bloodline without the Dreadgods on it. So there you go. 

Questioner

As the author, who is your favorite character to write about?

Will Wight

Hmm, I don't know. I like writing about a lot of different characters. Some of the characters are easier to write than others, some of the characters are more fun to write.

Questioner

Since Cradle was meant to be your side project series originally, what aspect of the story do you think expanded the most as it became arguably your flagship series?

Will Wight

Not really arguably, it's definitely my flagship series. That's a great question. So Unsouled and Soulsmith are the ones I wrote when it was just a side series and not my flagship series. And Blackflame was when I was like, "Hey! Wait a second, this is the number one thing." So, I guess there was more to it - I expanded further into the world. Lindon and Yerin's adventures would've been way narrower, they would've been way smaller in scope. A lot more limited. So I think that's probably the main difference. Instead of seeing all this stuff about Cradle as a whole and getting into that, it probably- [back to game]

Questioner

So the main character dies to a bad roll.

Will Wight

You know, this would be very gimmicky, but something I've always wanted to do is a narrative, maybe short story, maybe a novella, maybe a series of short stories where I am actually rolling the dice to see what happens to the the character for random events. Now, of course, the character still makes all of his character based decisions, but to see what happens, I roll the dice to see what sort of random events happen and where I'm open about that with the audience. So, I show them what roll I get and I go "Uh oh, he rolled a 1, this fight is gonna go badly." I always thought that would be fun, so it's kind of like a narrative of a one player table top game, basically. And, I think that'd be fun, it'd be kind of like those choose you're own adventure things where the author is like "pick A, B or C" and the Patreon supporters vote, or whatever it is. I just thought it would be neat, I just thought it'd be kind of fun. I don't have any plans for that or anything. It'd just be fun.

Questioner

Are you still thinking about writing some LITRPG? Also do you like crawfish?

Will Wight

I do like crawfish. We as kids, in a creek, when we were camping as a family. We would cook them on the grill and eat them in drawn butter and they were delicious. Big fan of crawfish.

As for the first half of your question, are you still thinking of writing a LITRPG, yeah, I'm thinking of writing a crawfish LITRPG. I think a crawfish that levels up. It goes around killing smaller fish gaining levels in Crawfish until eventually it rises to the shore and becomes a crawfish mage. Something like that.

Will Wight

As for the actual question, am I still considering writing a LITRPG. Sort of. What I mentioned before is that I'm not a big fan of LITRPG. I know there's a lot of LITRPG that appeals to fans. I'm not dissing on any LITRPG authors or even works. If people love LITRPG and love the books that's great. It's just not my preferred subgenre. I've read a lot of LITRPG and it just isn't something that appeals to me.

I've read Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, Overgeared (aka Legendary Moonlight Sculptor 2). I read a lot of the American LITRPG stuff and it just doesn't work for me and I don't know why. I've considered it a challenge. Theoretically it really works for me, but in practice it doesn't. A lot these authors are really good. They're really good writers. There's got to be something about the formula that doesn't work for me. So I have thought "it's gotta be the formula itself, so can I figure out a formula that I can enjoy, and would people like that?"

I've sorta worked on that a little bit, but I don't know if I will. There's so many people writing LITRPG and they're clearly hitting a large audience. It's already a crowded room and they're already into something I'm not into. So it feels like a party I'm not welcome to. Why don't I just do something else. If I figure out an idea I think I would work for me and that I think I would like, I'd try it.

Commenter

Everyone knows Will's love for math.

Will Wight

Any LITRPG I did would be minimal numbers. If I did anything it would be more based on a table top game than a computer game. More like a roleplaying game than a CRPG, for instance.

Questioner

You've mentioned in the past the possibility of hardback books at some point, but nothing definitive. With the more recent (presumably good) sales numbers for Wintersteel and Bloodline, have you given any more thought to this idea? Do you think there's enough interest to justify some kind of limited Collector's Edition through Kickstarter or something once you conclude the Cradle series?

Will Wight

The sales numbers are indeed good, no more need to presume, I can confirm that the sales numbers have been very good. We did hit #1 in the Kindle Store for Wintersteel and Bloodline, already, so yes they have been good. 

About the hardcover thing. Yes, I have considered doing hardcovers. We actually recently did a test run- a very limited number of copies, fifteen copies or something like that, of a test hardcover. We did that, and then I have the only existing Traveler's Gate- House of Blades hardcover. So we've considered that, it really has to do with getting printings- doing printings, getting enough people. There's kind of some concern over whether or not anyone would want that, whether we'd sell enough to justify the cost of doing a printing. Since we have to do limited print as opposed to print on demand, which is what we do with the paperbacks, it would probably be paired with a Kickstarter or something. So, you do at a certain tier, then we would have hardback copies of the book, I don't know. 

Yeah, like a Collector's Edition kind of thing. And then we'd probably do new covers and- probably. But that's really all, completely up in the air. So I can't be held to anything about that. But that's most likely what would happen, is we'd probably do some sort of special edition. 

Questioner

Is there an afterlife on Cradle, or is it just Remnants and spirits and nowhere else after death?

Will Wight

I will answer that with a question: is there an afterlife in real life? Hmmmm, who knows. I really don't go into the afterlife of what actually happens- the metaphysics of what happens in Cradle, or in the Willverse, or with the Abidan too much. Mainly because that tends to be a contentious topic among people that think I'm promoting something or selling them... something. So I don't really intend to go into that. So, death is the great mystery.

Questioner

Does Mercy have a mental enhancement? Her Path seems to involve a great deal of multitasking.

Will Wight

Yes she does. She does. It's not as clear and dramatic as ghostwater.

Questioner

Why does Naruto have the best shonen ending?

Will Wight

Don't do that to me. I know what you're doing. I see. Someone asked me why does Naruto have the best ending of any shonen series, and it's because the person in question knows that I could talk on that topic forever, because I do not like Naruto's ending at all. So, uh, trying to set me off. 

Mike

Do Ghosts control what magic system a new world has?

Will Wight

Sort of, yeah. Like, indirectly. They have input on it. As they're assembling a world they can sort of nudge it in one direction or another.

Questioner

How far away are the nearest pair of scissors from you?

Will Wight

Did somebody put you up to asking that? Somebody asked, "How far away are the nearest pair of scissors from you?" They are in my hand. That is how far away they are. Who told that? Did people really, do you guys know this? Somebody told you, oh, Sam told you. Yeah, I always have scissors. And I did, indeed, have scissors right there. So, I do almost always have scissors within arm's length. 

Mountainking

How do Makiel and Gadrael bond as father and son?

Will Wight

They play catch. Just like you would imagine. Just like, kind of a stereotypical father and son relationship. Is Makiel literally Gadrael's father? No. But they definitely [portal decisions] 

So they play catch. They play catch with moons. They just sort of- they have really big mitts. Just throw moons at one another. Kind of like, you guys seen Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann where they're just throwing galaxies like frisbees? I know you all have. I know you know exactly what I'm talking about. That's exactly what happens. It's like that, but with moons and giant baseball mitts. 

Questioner

Do you like Dark Souls?

Will Wight

I do. I do like Dark Souls. Dark Souls 1 made it into my game of the decade list out of personal enjoyment, I don't remember what number it was but Dark Souls 1 is my jam. And I played that game a million times. None of the other Dark Souls really did it for me, neither did any of the other Dark Souls versions that FromSoftware put out. But, number one, I just really love. Never, just, like I played through the others and they were fine. I don't even think I made it through any of the others. So, yeah, but I really loved Dark Souls 1. There's the answer. 

Questioner

Was there any anime influence on Cradle.

Will Wight

Y...yeees, but I don't have any specifics for you. A lot of people are like, it's clearly inspired by Naruto. Which, in a way, I guess it's- the magic system was not, oddly enough, even though it seems like it should be. But specific elements, some of the elements work. But it was really more of a, I admire Naruto a lot, but it's not something I-

Questioner

One late night, Mercy and Dross gather everyone together to play a roleplaying tabletop game. What game do they play and how do they play it?

Will Wight

Alright, I'm probably not going to answer that in the spirit that it was asked. But I can tell you what everybody's- I can probably make up what everybody's D&D class would be. Like, which D&D class would they all pick. So, I can pretty comfortably say that Lindon would be a wizard and Yerin would be a fighter, like, that's pretty clear. Because wizards are just, you know, the best class. And fighters are, Yerin would be very happy. 

Artificer would be good too, that's true. I haven't actually run an artificer, so I haven't tried it for myself. But thematically they fit. But I think he would go wizard because he'd be going with what's the class that's going to be the best later, and I think that's pretty undisputedly the wizard.

So, and then I think Yerin would really enjoy the idea of attacking four times when everybody is only attacking once or twice. That's kind of her jam, if you will. Let's see. Eithan, bard. Hands down. I think that's probably the easiest one. Mercy, probably cleric. Orthos would be eating the pieces, I think.

[very in-depth analysis on Will's Gaming Channel]

And then, who else? So Orthos eating the pieces, and then Dross is DMing, 100%. 

Questioner

What flavor do you wish Oreo would add to their catalog?

Will Wight

Hmm, flavor. That I wish Oreo would add to their catalog. Hmm. 

Happiness. 

Questioner

Will we ever get a full map of Cradle with the continents and major territories listed?

Will Wight

That depends! That actually depends on whether someone else makes one. As I have said many times in the past, I hate maps. I hate 'em. Cannot stand maps. In a previous life, I'm pretty sure a map killed my family- and probably me as well. I'm imagining a brutal map massacre, as in a massacre perpetrated by a map. So I just don't like maps. They have insulted me forever and I will have my revenge by not making them. 

Questioner

Have you watched Warrior on HBO? The main is how I now picture Lindon in my head.

Will Wight

I have not. Moving on. 

Mike

Why do Sages get titles, but Heralds don't?

Will Wight

Heralds do. They just are unofficial. Sages get titles because, they do. It's cultural. I don't know. It's to indicate what kind of Icon they manifested. So, it's more individual whereas Heralds are less defined by what exactly they can do. So that really is the answer. 

Questioner

What is Fury's title?

Will Wight

I wish I could answer that question. It's a good question. But I actually do have a list of things that he was called, because he was, like I mentioned before, he was considered a god of war, a herald of war in some cultures. So I actually have some nicknames for him, I just don't remember. It's stuff like that, stuff about him being - yeah, Goku. That's his nickname. 

Questioner

Do Iterations typically only have 1 habitable planet tying them to the Way or are there multiple in the Iterations' corner of their universe?

Will Wight

Yes. Typically, Iterations only have one habitable planet. No, that's not true. One inhabited planet. So that is typically the case. But that doesn't mean they only have one habitable planet and it doesn't mean that none of them have multiple inhabited planets. So there are some, definitely. 

Questioner

Did you read Coiling Dragon?

Will Wight

Coiling Dragon was one of the original cultivation novels I read. I don't know if it was my first, it was one of my first. And I really liked it. It was funny, because it was kind of pitched to its original audience as a more Western style cultivation story, and it abandoned that very quickly. 

Questioner

Would there be any point in using 8 peak natural treasures like Titan's bone as soulfire fuel to advance?

Will Wight

Yeah, if you were advancing to Archlord it would be very fast. It wouldn't give any better of a body. You would have to then control that aura though, which would be difficult if you were advancing to Archlord. However, it would make a lot of high quality soulfire, so if you are an Archlord and you would have all of that then you would be super filled up on soulfire.

Eveep

What would Ghostwater do if it were a territory?

Will Wight

You know, I considered something like that. When I was developing the territories I kind of put in every idea that I had except for one. Which was I didn't want to do a water theme territory and that was one of things that I had considered other people on the other side of the world because there are a couple of other territories that are inaccessible from where they are. So I considered a water one. I don't know if I'll do that though.

Questioner

Who was Akura Fury’s father?

Will Wight

I can't answer that.

Josh

Does your multiverse have a name, like the Cosmere?

Will Wight

So, the fans have started calling it the Willverse, which I'm gonna be honest, I did not think of but I think is a fantastic name. I'm not gonna make that cannon because that would be too on the nose, but boy I want it to be. That would be, I like it, I think it's funny.

Questioner

Are humans the most common Ascended beings/Immortals?

Will Wight

Yes, they are. Humans are the most common.

Diya

What does the Thousand Swords binding of light do?

Will Wight

It's swords of revealing light from Yu-Gi-Oh. That's what it is. That was the joke. It was a reference to swords of revealing light from Yu-Gi-Oh. That's why it never made an onscreen appearance because it would just be the Yu-Gi-Oh card.

Questioner

What will you be writing next?

Will Wight

I don't know. I mean it's gonna be Cradle 10. Immediately next, the first thing I'm gonna work on is Cradle 10. But, after that I don't know if I'm gonna start another series or do a Traveler's Blade Trilogy. By the way, they are calling it Dadmon. I don't know how to say that. But it's dad Simon, Simon as a dad. And that's one of the fan theories that has been going around for a couple of years now, that the second Traveler's Gate Trilogy is going to show Simon as a dad. And that was definitely one of the ideas I had for the second series is a big time skip showing him 10 or 20 years later. And, I had considered that but I wasn't sure how I felt about it. But that's one of those, somebody asked me earlier "Do I get ideas from the community?" and so that was not an idea I got from the community. It was a pretty natural idea that I had had while considering. Of course one of the things I'm considering is a big time skip, right? But, the community might be talking me into that because they more they talk about it and the more they talk about the possibility of Simon as a dad, kind of like Simon as Kratos in the latest God Of War. That appeals to me, it appeals to my sense of humor. It's a new type of story I could tell. Just have Simon constantly going "BOY!!" Yeah, so I think that would be fun.

AkuraACME

If you were an Akura, what adjective would you use? What descriptor or character trait would be my name if I were an Akura?

Will Wight

Hmmm. Sloth.

Questioner

How many pages long is Bloodline?

Will Wight

About 400, or something like that.

Questioner

When Lindon absorbs the memories that Dross filters through his consume technique does he also gain useful knowledge and skills from the target's memories?

Will Wight

Yeah, sort of. Dross filters them, so he can absorb the memories, he can absorb the skills to some degree. It's kind of like a half-formed, half-baked information and Dross filters it to him at the rate he can handle. So, it's not exactly like absorbing somebodies skill, but it's kind of partially like that.

Questioner

Will Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann have an influence on Abidan fights?

Will Wight

As a matter of fact, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the classic 2007 anime, will have absolute influence on Abidan fights because all Abidan fights will be done in giant mechs.

Questioner

At what level can a royal madra user transfer their power?

Will Wight

That is sort of a weird question to answer because there is really only one line that does that and its the royal line. So, at what level? I mean, they are all Monarchs kind of by default. In order to design a system like that you'd probably have to be a Monarch. I suspect you could do it if you had Sages cooperating, but it would be difficult.

Questioner

In Underlord when Eithan gave Lindon the Archstone, had he stolen it from the Blackflame vaults, or negotiated with Naru Huan to get it?

Will Wight

You'll find with a lot of the things that Eithan does, that it's not simply one or the other. Who are we to say whether it was theft, or whether it was clever negotiation, or whether it was simply charm that got him the archstone? I think he would probably say that it was all things.

Questioner

Will Hidden Gnome ever represent other authors to publish?

Will Wight

Potentially, yes. That is something that we are open to. It's not something that we have written off. But, there is a lot of consideration that goes into that. We don't exactly know what the best way to do that would be or how to find the best people or any of that. So, it's not anything we are likely to do very soon, but who knows? Maybe. We are certainly open to it and we intend to do that at some point, but whether that'll be this year or not, I mean, who knows?

Questioner

Do Iterations have driving wills that shape their magic systems or is it just the randomness of fate or their unique connection to the Way?

Will Wight

There's different aspects of each iteration that determine... In a way, and I probably will change this terminology, but in a way it's like which icons they are sort of closest to or more attuned to. And then it sort of sorts itself out from there. The actual specific rules of the magic system design themselves. It's not like somebody sits down and does it specifically. But, it starts off a lot more vague but connected to certain broad concepts and then it settles into a set of rules over time. Usually that's how that works.

Questioner

The Nine Cloud Court spirit is said to be nine colors. What are those colors?

Will Wight

Dang it! I can't remember what the eighth color of magic is called. Octarine! It's octarine and nonarine. Those are the eighth and ninth colors.

Leo

How well would Meira have done in the uncrowned tournament?

Will Wight

I don't know. You'd have to put her in it and see. I would say she would probably have made it to the second round and then it kind of depends on luck at that point because it depends who she runs into. So, I think she would do relatively well in the second round because it's sort of a survival battle royal thing and she's a life artist. It's good compatibility with her powers. But she doesn't have a whole lot of allies.

Questioner

Do Abidan Sectors reflect location in the Way?

Will Wight

Yes.

Questioner

What was [your] Underlord revelation?

Will Wight

I can't give you that information. That's way too personal.

April

A recruiter from the Abidan shows up at your door. What division are they from? What’s their pitch, and what’s your response?-

Will Wight

So, if a division of the Abidan showed up at my door, what would their pitch be? Well, their pitch would be super easy. I don't know what division it would be, probably the Ghosts because they are the ones that deal with the fabric of reality. And they would show up and be like "Hey, listen. You know all these stories you've been writing? You're actually getting the ideas for them from a real place and we've been channeling them into your mind or you have a unique tapping into the structure of how this multiverse actually works and we are going to recruit you for this unique relationship you have with the Way." And I would be like "Awesome. By all means." That'd be a pitch.

Jesse

Do you think there's any chance for an eventual Graphic Novel adaptation?

Will Wight

Theoretically, sure. Yeah, that'd be great. I would love a graphic novel adaptation. The issue is, I can't do that on my own. So, obviously I would need to work with an artist and I don't know who that would be. So, we'd have to collaborate on that, it's a difficult thing. And if we're doing that and if I have to be involved in it, then I'm not writing a book. So ideally, it would be somebody I could hang on to who could at least get rolling with minimal involvement and produce the graphic novel. It's difficult. But, it'd be very cool.

Questioner

What are some tips you would have for writing a progression/cultivation fantasy magic system? Andrew Rowe recommended making sure each level or higher advancement had its own unique trait.

Will Wight

Andrew Rowe knows what he's doing; that's a good tip. One of the things I did when I was designing the system: in a lot of these martial arts, cultivation, and advancement, they have levels that are just levels; so like High Gold which is just better than Low Gold, but not as good as True Gold and nothing special. I regret having those. I wish I had removed those and every level had its own distinct feature. It's more memorable and a more concrete way of leveling up. Just being more power is not as easily defined.

Will Wight

Here's a quick tip: have your character run into the peak of the magic system early. In Coiling Dragon, he witnesses Saints in an high-level battle. Which at point in the series is the height of the cultivation series. He sees them fighting toward the very beginning and that establishes for him where they're going to go. You've seen these big experts batting so you know what a high level battle is going to look like. Even though it's going to be a while before you get there, you know where it's headed.

In Unsouled I did that with Suriel and his vision of the monarchs so we know there are people way up and Suriel is higher. I could have done a better job because I could have shown the monarchs and what they're capable of as the pinnacle of the Sacred Arts magic system as opposed to the pinnacle of the universe, which is what Suriel is. Which is literally incomprehensible to Lindon at that point. That's what I'd wish I'd done a little better there and what you can do as you're starting out. You can make sure you can see the height of the magic system early so the reader and the character can know where they're going.

Questioner

Where did you get the idea for Cradle?

Will Wight

It was really just I was reading a lot of cultivation novels that are mostly Chinese, but then I was also reading a lot of Korean martial arts web comics, so there's a lot of shared mythology there. So that was kind of where I was... that idea started percolating, and I was going to do it as a web serial, just on the website on my blog, at a couple of chapters a week to get some traffic to cover up the gap between writing Kings and Killers. And then I ended up doing the short stories instead, so then I bound the chapters I had left together and turned them into Unsouled, and then I... that took off, far more than Elder Empire ever had, so I pursued Cradle. So that's the long and the short of Cradle.

Bridget

During which draft do you decide where and when to put each "Information requested"?

Will Wight

That depends. That's... all sorts of different ways.

Someone also asked - and this is a question I get a lot that is also a very good question - that is: "how do you come up with names?" My standard answer to that is: every way, all the ways, any way you could think of coming up with names. I spend a lot of time coming up with names. It is something I kind of brute-force. So one of the things I like to do is with each culture or faction, I sort of come up with a name... thing... conventions for naming. And that helps me. So when I'm naming an Akura character I know that they are going to be Akura Wrath, or Akura Really-Good-At-Reading-Books, and I know those things so... yeah, I come up with names in a lot of different ways.

So where do I put "Information requested"? Similar answer. I do it a lot of different ways. So sometimes when I'm making up... when I'm going "Information requested" I know there's a few "Information requested" that I know are going to be in certain places. Other times, I'm like: "oh, ok... I need to... it's been a while since we've heard from this", or I need to explore that concept further, so then I'll add one in. It depends. So I treat them very differently.

 

Questioner

Will Will do the audio for the next Traveler's Gate series?

Will Wight

Ahh... no. If it's up to me, I would not be doing the current Traveler's Gate audio as it is currently available on Amazon. I would absolutely get a professional to do it; and if I have my way, it would be one professional, and that is Travis Baldree.

So that is my preference, so... I have no attachment to my own work - by all means, burn it to the ground and let it be forgotten by man.

Questioner

Is there a specific medium you would prefer to see Cradle adapted into? If so, what animation or cinematography style do you see it fitting into?

Will Wight

I have always imagined this as an anime, but in all fairness I imagine most things as an anime, so it's not... that's kind of biased. I don't mind if it gets adopted into live action; the only problem is I'm never excited when I hear about a live action adaptation because I just assume it's going to be bad. It isn't always, but I feel like the unsuccessful adaptations outnumber the successful ones. So that's kind of my concern with a live action adaption... especially for Cradle. Cradle definitely has an animated feel to it, in my heart.

So then which style... I don't know, anybody who does a good job is welcomed. There's a lot of people with a lot of different styles who tend to do a fantastic job.

Questioner

Could any of our three musketeers beat Li Markuth in a fight?

Will Wight

Ahh... no. Because he is ascended beyond Cradle and learned some of that magic system, so therefore he is... as he descended back down to Cradle he was definitely... he's kind of beyond that. But the closest... Yerin could do it, Lindon's at the point (in Bloodline) where he could probably give him a run for his money as well, without anything he [Li Markuth] took beyond Cradle. So they're basically on a level with him, or somewhere close.

Kuram

Why did the dragons want the Blackflame Empire? The aura is known to be pretty weak.

Will Wight

I mean... why does anybody want to control any amount of territory? It's just kind of a place they wanted.

Questioner

How far ahead did you plan Lindon's return in Bloodline?

Will Wight

From book 1, I think. Yeah. I had the broad strokes of him coming back in book 1, but of course the details changed as his journey went on. So how far did I plan his return? The whole time, yeah. I always intended for him to come back, and there were certain aspects of his return that I certainly had from the very beginning.

Questioner

What is the difference between a Divine Treasure and a Construct?

Will Wight

So a construct is a general term for anything made with soulsmithing that doesn't have a physical component. So if it has a physical component it's a sacred instrument; otherwise it's a construct. Sacred instruments are basically constructs with a physical component. So Divine Treasures are items that work as constructs but they function when they're in spiritual form, so you make them and then you absorb them into your soul and then they do their thing... they perform their function, they do whatever they're going to do. So yeah, that's what a divine construct is.

Questioner

Would you rather be a herald or a sage?

Will Wight

Sage. You get to do more cool things. I want to be able to talk in bold text... it'd be amazing.

Questioner

Does Dross ever annoy Mercy?

Will Wight

No. He tried, it just didn't work. She just didn't get annoyed. So that's the secret to people who are deliberately annoying: just don't be annoyed and they have no power over you.

Questioner

Does Lindon actually need his hunger madra arm to use the Consume technique?

Will Wight

Yes, he does. That's sort of how his body and soul work now.

Questioner

Can Lindon create void keys now that he can sense The Way?

Will Wight

That is something that he can learn to do. Not all Sages can do that, but he can. So that is something that he can learn to do.

Now can he do that yet? No, he doesn't know how. But that is something that is viable with his power set. Void Icon, void keys - makes sense, right?

Questioner

Are you a DotA fan as you use the name Abidan, which is one of the heroes in it?

Will Wight

No, that's a character from... it's a demon from mythology. So that's a common name, that gets used in a lot of fantasy. That's actually not where the name of the Abidan organization came from, but that is where the name of the DotA character came from.

Questioner

When do you think you will finish Cradle?

Will Wight

I don't know. There's three books left, so probably... it's going to be 2022 or 2023. I'm not sure when. It depends on what my release schedule is. So yeah, I would expect me to write one more book this year, and then probably get started on the next one, and then the third book finished sometime next year. So it depends on when that gets finished. So 2022 or 2023, I would say.

Jenny

Was Jai Chen the wife Lindon saw in Suriel's vision?

Will Wight

Yes.

Curt

While we know people are only able to advance to Jade in Sacred Valley, we know that is was possible for Yerin to advance to lowgold. Is it possible for someone to advance so much in SV that when they leave they could advance straight to highgold or truegold?

Will Wight

No, not really. That's something that you just can't do. There isn't the ability to do that in Sacred Valley.

Questioner

What is Eithan's favorite dessert, assuming he wasn't allowed to steal yours or anyone else's?

Will Wight

That's in reference to a question I was once asked, which was what's Eithan's favorite ice cream, and I said "yours".

So, hmmm... I think of him as a chocolate mousse kind of guy. Like a light dessert. [someone offscreen:"What?!?"]

That's what I think... yup, chocolate mousse. That's what I think; that's my answer.

And I mean a light dessert. By that I mean not m-o-u-s-s-e, but m-o-o-s-e. So it's a moose made of chocolate.

Mu Hentai

Would you guys consider getting some kind of Sacred Artist badges to sell on your store?

Will Wight

You know, people ask me that a lot, and like I've said before: the merchandise takes a lot of energy to run, and to develop. So it's a lot more difficult than people realize it is. And so often people are like: "No, it's not that hard, you can just 3D print a badge."

I know you can... look, 3D printing one badge is definitely doable; 3D printing a batch of badges is definitely doable. Doing something so that we have them sell-able and available on our store - it's possible, but it's not something that is necessarily worth the time and energy invested in it.

So maybe someday. I'd like to have them, they're cool... but we don't sell a lot of merch anyway. We're really just focused on selling enough merchandise to justify itself. But the reason why we started selling merch - kind of like the reason we started giving books away - is because people wanted merchandise. So... that's it, that's why it exists. So I would like to do badges - if we can justify it one day, we will.

Questioner

If there were movies/tv series about cradle, who would play the characters?

Will Wight

I don't have knowledge of actors to say that... so... Danny DeVito for all roles. Every role. I can easily see him as Lindon. I could see him as Eithan, in a long blonde wig. I could easily see that. And then Yerin, you could just stick aluminum foil like arms to his back - I could see Danny DeVito doing that. And then... I would say him as the voice of Orthos, but actually I think probably he'd just sort of walk around on all fours with a black shell on his back and I think that's just... that's Orthos, so... Danny DeVito, all characters.

 

Questioner

What are the stylistic differences between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean light novels?

Will Wight

I will preface this with: I don't know many of these differences are stylistic differences, how many are cultural differences, and how many are linguistic differences. I know there are few things with Chinese novels, when I started reading them, that drove me crazy that I eventually learned were part of the language.

One of the things I couldn't wrap my head around was, in all these different novels I read they would all use the same turn of phrase. They would use, "the smell of gunpowder was heavy on the air" in a world with no gunpowder, and I was "what is this?". Apparently, they have phrases that are directly translated that way, but have their own meaning in the language that don't mean that. "You are courting death" is another one everyone says and I'm sure is a genre thing.

In my experience, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese novels, just like popular American novels tend to, follow trends at a time. It's interesting to see how many become similar to one another. One of the things I've noticed is that a Korean main character's flaw is being very greedy. I don't know why, but they're considered very materialistic. It's considered a flaw so they aren't saying "you should all be greedy", but that's clearly what the Korean main characters start to do.

One of other things I've also noticed is that a lot of these main characters start - I don't want to say emotionless - very stoic, and in a way that is expressed differently in different cultures. The Chinese stoic protagonist is honorable and ruthless. Where as a Japanese main character will be distant and a loner. The Korean one sets boundaries; if you're fair to me I'll be fair to you. They bleed over each other a little bit. When I noticed that, I also noticed it's common in American novels, but the stoicism is portrayed very differently for American main characters. So you have stoic protagonists like John Wick, or any of the Clive Cussler, or Tom Clancy (TC is sometimes less stoic) are men who just get the job done. They're the growly men who "I only cry tears when a brother of mine dies in the battlefield". It's just interesting how different cultures have interpretations of the same trope.

One of the things I've noticed is that a lot of these cultures, the video game inspired novels have taken over. Those are expressed differently in the different cultures. In Korea there's a lot of trend towards things set in the real world where dungeon portals open up and people get powers and can go into the portals and grind up and come back to the real world. There's a lot of different interpretations of it, but they're all video game inspired which makes sense, I think. It's why LITRPG are really popular now. Video games are popular and they're probably more popular now than they've ever been and we've all grown up playing video games. It's just something that is hear to stay and will evolve and change as literature always does.

Will Wight

((Shows Oreo Easter Egg))

I'm not going to lie to you. It's not that good. It's Oreo cream filling a chocolate Easter egg. The chocolate on the outside overpowers the Oreo cream on the inside. I sound like an Oreo critic, but it doesn't taste like an Oreo. It just tastes like a regular cream egg with crunchy bits in it.

I did notice recently that the Canadian version of Oreos are crispier. I don't know if they're fresher or if they have a different recipe or something.

I've tried different Oreo flavors: dark chocolate and carrot cake. One I really liked was chocolate peanut butter pie.

Questioner

Have you read Overlord (Light Novel)?

Will Wight

I'm not a huge Overlord fan. The main character is playing an MMO when it shuts down. He's one of the top players in the game when it's shutting down and he wakes up in the body of his game character. He gets the power of a max level character and he ends up being able to explore this fantasy world. And his character is a lich; he's an undead magic user. That's really cool. He's awesome. The people are awesome. The place he finds himself in: the magic dark fortress his guild uses is super cool. 

The problem I have with the series is that because the main character is undead he has no human emotions, feelings, or morality. It's like reading through the perspective of a robot and he doesn't care about anything and doesn't have any goals. He has no resistance and faces no places and doesn't care about anything. So it's hard for me.

A lot of the books are various perspectives around him which I find a lot more interesting. Then again, he's the more colorful character and he's the main character. It's not one of my favorite series.

I've read it and I'm current (at least I was a few months ago). The anime is really good.

What I really like about it is the colorful cast of characters and the colorful setting of his fortress.

Questioner

What program(s) do you write in?

Will Wight

Word, it's always Word. 

Questioner

We've seen resonance in soulsmithing. Can the techniques on a sacred artist's path resonate with each other? As in, could you have a path where your abilities, when used together, create something stronger than sum of each of the techniques used?

Will Wight

The canon that Lindon uses sometimes operates on the principle of technique resonance, so saying that these techniques work together better than they work separately. So you're asking if there are Paths that do the same?

Yes there are. But it's not something that is typically the foundation of a Path, because it would be like a suicidal technique - not literally suicidal, as in it wouldn't necessarily instantly kill you - but it puts a higher burden on your spirit and your madra channels and your body, than using them separately would.

So typically Paths are not designed like that. But there are techniques that can be used together. One of the problems with that is it's often hard to use two techniques together that are similar, so it's hard to use one striker technique from one hand and another striker technique from another hand - that kind of thing.

Questioner

Have you ever used the subreddit for ideas?

Will Wight

No. I don't need to use anything for ideas. That's one of the things that's interesting is that it's harder to narrow down ideas than it is to come up with ideas. I'm never like "Man I sure am out of ideas! I'd better go find some."

I guess if I could have seen something in the subreddit if I thought it was really cool, but typically the stuff in the subreddit people come up with are stuff they think is going to happen based on what's already in the books... so it's already in the books. So I've typically already at least considered it.

Now what I have done sometimes is when a fan mentions an idea they have, and then they'll pitch it differently or present it in a way that they think it's really cool, and they'll get me to reconsider something I've set aside. So that is something I've done: I've reconsidered something because a fan said it. Or because when they said it and they're like "Yeah, this is probably what's gonna happen," and I've thought... not because they guessed it, but I've thought: "Oh yeah when you put it that way that sounds like a bad idea." So I've done stuff like that.

But it's very rare that anybody comes up with an idea - and that it all fits the series - that I haven't already though of... just because I've spent a long time thinking about this, that's all.

Questioner

Lately it seems like a lot of the fantasy novels I’ve been reading fall into the trap of giving the main character some unreasonable ability that is just not realistic for the setting. Do you ever find it hard and/or how do you handle ‘balancing ‘ your characters so no one has an ability that doesn’t really pass the smell test?

Will Wight

One of the things I like to do, is give my characters abilities are reasonable within the rest of the setting. It's not that the main character has the only version of this magic ability. It's something that other people have. You might get an over powered ability, but it's an overpowered ability that exists the magic system as it's understood. That's generally how I do it. I think I've learned a lot about that while writing Cradle and would incorporate some of those lessons...((Will distracted by game, but probably comment about incorporating into books in the future)).

I don't have  a problem with characters that have abilities that are overpowered. I used to want characters that grow into overpowered ability, but not start with them. Now I kind of enjoy it when a character stars with an unusual ability because it's exciting.

Will Wight

Someone also asked me how i'm liking The Wandering Inn, I am halfway through volume 5 which is about 3 million words in? something like that? I am tearing through it, I basically have spent every moment reading. I put it off for so long because its such a long series, so I felt like its such a huge commitment and that I wasn't gonna like it cos its so long. You guys know how I feel about stuff that is very very long, I would much prefer a tight, exciting 400 page story that's cut down to only its best elements than an 800 page story that has wasted pages. This is maybe the longest story I've ever read, so its the extreme example of that, except i'm completely engaged! Its extremely good! I was sure I wasn't gonna like it and i'm liking it, so I did not give the author enough credit.

The funniest thing about it is, it's a real world but it works kinda like a game, so you have classes and you have skills in those classes, and that's not a new idea, its a common LitRPG thing, but I had tried to come up with a system for the way I would want to do it, I mentioned not particularly caring for LitRPG, so I had come up with a system how I would want to do it. It ended up, the notes i have are very similar to what Wandering Inn ended up doing, so I was like holy crap, this is like somebody took my notes and did a way better job! So the author did an extremely good job. So its kinda intimidating, it was like well now why would I tackle a similar magic system because this person has already done such a good job? There's no room, so I dunno if i'm gonna do a class/skill system now because Wandering Inn did such a good job. 

Questioner

If you found yourself in a LitRPG situation what class and race would you choose for you character?

Will Wight

I don't read a lot of LitRPG, I mean i *have* read a lot of LitRPG, i don't generally as a rule read a lot of LitRPG, I don't tend to enjoy the genre very much, i don't really know why, because in theory, i like video games, i like fantasy novels, that's a video game/fantasy novel, so it should be right up my alley. It feels like i'm reading about someone else playing a video game, and i'd rather be reading a story or playing a video game, either one! So i don't have a super informed answer, I have read all the popular works in the genre, so I guess i have a grounding in it. I don't have a super great LitRPG answer, but in terms of the actual scenario, if i was sucked into a game or a game like world and i got to pick my class and race.... so barring some sort of overpowered race like a vampire of dragon or something...cos if you get to be a dragon, always choose to be a dragon! but other than that, i guess standard races, i mean Elf, the more Tolkien is is, why would you not want to be an elf? Elves are awesome, seems like the obvious choice for race. For class, so there are always these works, like Over geared that have these crazy legendary classes, so i'm not gonna make up something busted lie "SOUL SUMMONER" or something weird, so limiting myself to the basic d&d style classes....Wizard, its the best class. Why wouldn't you be a wizard? If you can get transported into a fantasy world, the one thing you can't do in real life if magic.

Questioner

What genre of game would you most want to see in the Cradle Universe?

Will Wight

People talk about a Cradle MMO all the time. I don't really like things being made into an MMO mainly because if your MMO isn't named World of Warcraft it's probably not really going anywhere. What I usually want to see, I really like single player games. I wouldn't mind if it was an open world or adventure thing. But honestly, I don't really care about game adaptations, if I want to see a game, it'd be an original story in the Cradle world. 

Rob

 Hi Will, Are there any lectures or youtube series you would recommend for aspiring writers looking to take their work up a notch? 

Will Wight

This is a question I get a lot, and that is a hard question to answer quickly. It's difficult to narrow down all the things that I have learned. However, for this specific question, I do. Brandon Sanderson has all his classes online and that's really good. One of the things I like to do as well are a lot of video essays on story structure. I like Filmento, I like Lessons of a Screenplay, I like "Totally Not Mark" he does anime. I enjoy a lot of those channels because they help you understand story structure. However, one of my cautions, is that very rarely are those written by professional writers. They're breaking apart another story to see how it's done, which is very valid, but I disagree with a lot of their conclusions because they're coming at it from an analytical perspective. But it doesn't necessarily tell you how the person who created the story got there in the first place. I caution that learning too much about that stuff doesn't help you translate it into creating an actual story. The way you do that is to write.

Questioner

Did the people who originally inhabited Asylum when it was used to trap the Elders/ Fiends volunteers/ criminals/ or did the Abidan breed or trap innocent people to tie the iteration to the way and support the prison?

Questioner

I don't know how much I want to go into that, I might want to do a short story on that someday. At the risk of telling you something that I am gonna change later, it was sort of an opportunistic thing. The world happened to be able to be used to lure the Great Elders there and be able to be trapped there. So they trapped them there expecting everyone on this world to die. So they did that because if the Elders had been released they would have killed a lot more people, so they saw it as an acceptable loss. But then the human population ended up producing the Emperor who figured out how to make a thriving population on what was supposed to be this cursed hell world. And they ended up lasting a lot longer than anyone expected. It's morally questionable, it sure is.

Tiffany

You have written some sections that have honestly made me cry. (Lindon's Underlord revelation as an example). What would you say has been the most emotional writing you have done across your books/series? What have you been most proud of writing?

Will Wight

I have found to be untrue is the saying "No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader." I have found that to be untrue. I have usually not found myself to be experiencing the emotions that I am trying to evoke in my readers. Because I'm writing, it's like work, it's a job thinking how I get this done. In terms of most emotionally impactful, there's a scene I wrote in Bloodline that punched me in the gut, it's halfway through the book. There's a part when he first gets home where it hit me. It felt to me so awkward in a way that hurt me in a soul. I don't want to spoil Traveler's Gate, but in City of Light some major characters die. That made me really sad and I really didn't want to kill them because I liked them and they were fun. Most proud of writing? I'm always most proud of the end of Ghostwater, that moment took a lot to build up to and everyone liked it. And it was very hard to do. I knew I needed to land it and I worked very hard to land it.

Bean

Could 2 sacred artists take advantage of the dream stone technology emriss has created by training with each other in a simulated space sorta like lindon does with dross but with one another?

Will Wight

I don't really understand the question. But technically yeah, it seems to be feasible if I properly understand the question.

Questioner

On average how many words do you write per day? How does it compare to when you became a full time writer?

Will Wight

You know that's hard to say because there are a lot of different phases to writing. So, on average per day, not very many because most day's I'm not writing. But when I'm actually writing out a draft it's, I don't know, average about 5-6000 words a day. When I, *Will gets distracted by a question in chat about sleeping, to which he responds he will try*. Before I became a full time writer, I didn't write very much before I became a full time writer; I had written quite a bit but it wasn't like I wrote every day or anything. So I had written a lot of short stories and so I didn't have a disciplined writing scheduled before I became a full time writer. But while I was writing House of Blades, I was doing the last year of my grad school and I was working on my thesis, so that was very different. So, I write in sprints, I set aside days and weeks at a time that I use to write so I don't necessarily write from 9 to 5 everyday, I have a set period of time which all I do is write. So that's what I do.

Questioner

What is the best fanfic you ever read?

Will Wight

I don't remember, this title is going to be a little off okay? Because I don't remember exactly but it's uh "Dio's Bizarre Summer Break"? I don't.. I don't.. something like that. I really hope that title is not accurate for some sort of smut or something but it's uh.. it's something like that. It's a series of comics for uh a JoJo Bizarre Adventure fanfic comic. ... So uh it was a JoJo Bizarre Adventure fanfic comic basically from Dio's perspective like Dio's the good guy from part one. Instead of being the bad guy which he actually is and so they kind of portray Jonathan, the original JoJo, as overpowered and unstoppable and Dio's like the reasonable one trying to hold them back. ... But they keep creating their own like sort of, they keep going with the story and so they go all the way through part three with, where stands show up, that's the new magic system of part three, and Jonathan awakens his stand and it's the most powerful stand in the world. I honestly really liked it. It had a lot of great emotional moments. It started off as pure comedy but it ended up getting funny and actually emotional. It had some really cool magic system ideas. I really liked it. So in the actual story, JoJo's Bizarre adventure, Dio the bad guy becomes a vampire and he ends up surviving and developing this incredibly overpowered stand. And in this world the fanfic it's nothing compared to Jonathan's. I wish I remembered what it was called. I really.. it's something like "Dio's Bizarre Summer Break" or something I don't... Something like that. Maybe it's just "Dio's Bizarre Adventure" I could be wrong. I don't remember. ... It is called "Dio's [inaudible] the Bizarre Adventure" Okay great. I thought it.. I thought it had some other difference. Maybe I'm just getting it confused. Yeah I really hope Dio's Bizarre Summer Break isn't some kind of beach themed smut. But uh yeah "Dio's Bizarre Adventure" is the.. Oh part two is "JoJo's Bizarre Summer Break" Okay that's what I am getting confused.

Questioner

Did you read worm?

Will Wight

Yeah, Worm, I did read Worm. I really love Worm. I think Worm is great but I also think it is way longer than it needs to be. So, that's kinda my feeling about Worm. I read Worm, I read one of his other works. I don't remember what.. it's the one.. what is it called? I'll have to look it up later. But I read another one of the same author's works and it was good. I liked it and then I read.. it's Pact. That's what it was. Yeah Pact. Pact is what it was. I started reading Twig and I wasn't about it but I finished Pact and I read Worm and I started reading Ward and I did not like it. It was really, the style, that's the style I don't particularly like. So obviously a lot of people do. He's got a lot of fans and I think Worm is masterpiece so I have no, even its, even though I feel like it gets a little too long in the back half it's still so creative and well executed. But I, I still, I still don't like that style of basically just writing a lot that doesn't need to be in there. And, now I'm not every part of the book needs to necessarily be plot relevant. Which is fine but I do prefer that. So, Ward for instance, the sequel to Worm, one of the early scenes that I knew I was like hmm this is probably not to my tastes. There was a scene where the group of characters is in a group therapy session and we just sit through the entire group therapy session and we hear what everybody says to everybody else. The whole scene and it was honestly started off a really interesting scene because of course we're learning a lot about these characters and how they interact with each other and I was there for it. But, you then, see it all and I was like oof I would have cut that three or four pages in and it's.. it's very long. So that is not my style. That's not what I like.

Will Wight

I actually reread, it's talking about Seven Deadly Sins, the anime. I reread the manga Seven Deadly Sins not too long ago and I liked it. I think it's probably a little longer than it needs to be but it's.. it's good.

Questioner

Have you seen Hunter X Hunter?

Will Wight

Come on man. I'm in pain. I love Hunter Hunter. Alright.

Questioner

Writing question: how do you write main characters like Lindon and Simon?

Will Wight

Sip I find writing protagonists to be very hard and here's why. Protagonists have do things functionally in the plot that other characters don't have to do so they have to be the ones that get your reader invested in them. You have to be interested enough in the character to keep reading. Like you have to like the character and they have to be the kind of person that going to keeps pushing the story forward. So that's why you tend to see the same types of protagonists and the same sort of archetypes. ... The protagonists has to sort of be a similar kind of person and the way I see it now, I didn't start off thinking this way, but the way I see it now there is sort of a generic protagonist template. Someone who is the standard hero for this type of story. What you really want is someone who does all those things, fulfills all those roles, but is also very grounded in the world they are in. They are a product of that world. So I did that with both Simon and Lindon I had them be someone who is definitely born in the world. They are a product of what has happened to them in this world. They could only exist in this world and yet they are still sort of, they fulfill their role as a hero of the story. They're resourceful and they got a strong goals and they are out to solve those goals themselves and that kind of thing. So they can carry the story on their backs but I feel like.. if I had to rate, this is very much a feeling thing. This is not something that I learned, this is not a super writer secret or anything. This isn't even a technical term but if I had to put them on a spectrum I would say Shera and Calder from Elder Empire are more on the side of being their own characters than being protagonists and Simon is kind of more of a, he's more the standard protagonist you'd expect. And Lindon's sort of between them. That's kind of the scale I'd put them on.So how do you write a protagonist like Lindon and Simon? I would really say you need someone who is going, the kind of person who is gonna do what you need them to do in the story. He's the kind of person, or she, is the kind of person is gonna go out basically looking for trouble, looking to solve their own problems, looking to uh to do what it takes in a story. So they're looking to go have an adventure for some reason and they're strongly motivated to do it. So they are the kind of person that's really gonna go out and solve problems and look for problems to solve. So that is one of the requirements but there is a lot of different personality types that can do that. And then I think the second thing is you want them to be a product of the world they you're in. Sip

Questioner

Author's you enjoy or admire?

Will Wight

Man, that's uh a long list. That is hard to narrow down. I already mentioned The Wandering Inn by Pirateaba. Andrew Rowe is currently in the chat but you guys have all checked him out. So I don't even need to plug him. But Andrew Rowe is another one. ... So those are the ones off the top of my head because of what's around me.. let's see. Who else? Robert Jordan Wheel of Time obviously. Another classic. Brandon Sanderson, that's the easiest recommendation in the world. Jim Butcher Dresden Files is great. ... There's a number of web novels I'm reading right now. I'm reading Keyboard Immortal on Wuxiaworld that's a relatively new one. That's been fun. It's about a guy who gets the powers of an internet troll in a Chinese cultivation world. I'm reading I'm The Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire. I've enjoyed that. Dakota Krout. That's another one. He's really good. Let's see. I liked his Divine Dungeon series a lot. I didn't, the, his new series The Ritualist series is by, is his more popular one it seems, it seems. I don't know his sales numbers but it seems like it's more popular but it's LitRPG and I, like I said LitRPG is just not my thing. So I can't really, I don't know how it ranks cause I'm not a LitRPG guy. But if you're into LitRPG you've probably read his LitRPG series because it's extremely popular. So I'm sure it's good. I just, again, I, I can't, there's just something about the genre that I can't, just doesn't click for me. So there's another one that's To be a Power in the Shadows I think is what that title translates to. That one is hilarious. I really enjoy that one. It's another Japanese web novel. I don't know there's a lot.

 

Questioner

How do you know to put foreshadowing on a specific book for a later book?

Will Wight

Couple of ways: one of things is a lot of times I know what's coming up so I know there are major events and I don't know how I'm going to get there but I know I'm going to get there. So one thing people pick up on all the time, and I very much understand this, but they say all the time that I have decided to retcon the sword sage's power level or that he definitely couldn't be killed by jades. And that was something that I when I realized later the what power scale was going to be that I retconned that to.. Retcon means going back and changing something that.. Retroactive continuity. Is going back and changing something that is already been established. And that was just must a mistake on my part it wasn't a retcon. I 100% always, even in my notes for Unsouled were like 'The jades definitely should not be able to kill this guy. He is way way above them'. So I didn't know all the details of what a sage could do or anything but I had the general shape of it and I knew kind of where he was in the power scale and I knew jades should not even be able to touch this guy. So what I intended to happen was that as people got further in the series and figured out how far away he was they would go 'Wait a second?! That's? There's no way jades should be able to do this' what I didn't realize, and I should have, was that people are gonna see that and then think it a mistake. So, that was one of those things that I was like that was something I really intended to, to setup and yet it looks like I made a mistake. There were definitely were mistakes. There were things I setup for. There are other things that I'm like eh.. I think I'm probably gonna do this. So I throw in some foreshadowing for it and then I miss it later. So like in Soulsmith Lindon picks up these scripted stones that people ask me about all the time and I absolutely intended for him to learn scripting starting with those stones as like this beginning of this ancient runic vocabulary that Lindon was gonna to learn. And.. it uh.. did not ever happen. So that was something where I just destroyed the stones in Ghostwater because I realized 'Op I'm never going to spend that time'. So yeah. How do I know to put foreshadowing on something? It's really just [explosion noise from stream game] Op.

Questioner

Have you read Reverend Insanity? If so, was there anything that was inspired by it? 

Will Wight

I have. I've read Reverend Insanity back when it didn't have very many chapters and it was never a favorite of mine. Was anything inspired by it? No. That was something that I didn't dislike it or anything it just, it wasn't one that grabbed me.

Questioner

What's your favorite personal anecdote?

Will Wight

Hmm, I don't know. It there a personal story I tell too much? There's a few..

The Lesser Wight

A personal story you tell to much that time you tried to get... [inaudible]

Will Wight

That's not... that's not even real.

Questioner

Who came first, Malice or Big Mom (One Piece)? And which one of them is the better parent? 

Will Wight

I, uh, haha, I don't know.. I don't know when Oda came up with Big Mom. What was the first chapter Big Mom came out in? I don't know and I can assure you they were not related in anyway. I had no.. The idea for Malice came from, there is always a cultivator in these Chinese cultivation novels that has a million kids and has this giant clan that just spans all the world. So they always have this and it's always a guy. So there's a, you know, a pretty obvious reason for that. Which is guys can have more children than women can because these people always have a lot of wives and so they can just have a bunch of kids. But I was like but these people are immortal so presumably over time some women would have a giant clan and she would be the big power behind it too. And I had never read that so I was like Eh.. made sense. So that was something that would probably exist. So I... wrote one. So that's where that character came from. So yeah.. She's just kind of the... uh 2012. Big mom came from 2012, so Big Mom came first. There you go.

Questioner

Is it possible for Fiends of Chaos to not be inherently dangerous to humanity? So instead of wanting to destroy everything like Urgnaught, the Chaosfriend wants to completely master cooking for example.

Will Wight

Uh, Yeah.... Not really no, but it's possible for.. the example here was, instead of wanting to devour all of existance is it possible for instance for them to want to for instance master cooking. So that kind of thing is absolutly possible, but what the issue with fiends of choas is they are inherently destabilizing to the order that existance requires so they are going to kind of be unraveling reality as they as doing it so it is always going to be a problem

Questioner

How controlled is your usual fan interaction? For instance, when you comment in the subreddit, is it because you came in intending to interact, or is it more spur-of-the-moment?

Will Wight

On the subreddit particularily i just have the reddit app on my----, see! see look! Smoke! Why is smoke filling the room now, it wasn't before! I hate it, why is it doing this? Arghhh that annoys me.

Questioner (paraphrased)

How close does the current cradle story align with the initial outline? Are there any major deviations after the world/characters became more flushed out?

Will Wight (paraphrased)

Yes. Uh...There are definitely things. What I usually do is I have certain big events that i am definitely going to get to, so that road map down the road has always been there, all the major events have remained the same, so the general outline has been the same pretty much the whole time but the specific events that happen in each book, that changes all the time. That changes based on what I want to do. So a lot of times those minor changes snowball into bigger changes. One of those things is, Bliss from elder empire for instance, I know you asked about Cradle but this is the easiest off the top answer. I had designed, I had said there was a woman who was the head of the Blackwatch who was an artificially created homunculus basically and she had the spear of Tharlos, and had this certain power and she was this kind of person. But then when I wrote her intro scene meaning Calder, I really enjoyed writing her, and i enjoyed that scene a lot. So she became a bigger character than I intended her to be just because it was fun to write, just because she was fun so I enjoyed her.

So that kind of stuff happens in Cradle, like I said... earlier I had planned on Akura Grace just being one of the more sympathetic Akura clan characters, then as I fleshed her out, she grew into a character. So that ended up creating new things.

Questioner

What is the best magic system or mage class you have played in a game

Will Wight

Hmm. I don't know, weirdly the first thing that popped into my mind is Terraria and Terraria doesn't have a magic system it just has mage items. They are really fun and colorful, and they have a lot of different effects so I always enjoy playing a mage in Terraria. I don't why that was the first thing that popped into my head, but it was. Hmmm I don't know.

Elliot

Would you be open to doing streams more often? Not just before the release of a book? Perhaps you could talk about the writing process, daily life, maybe even stream some gameplay. It'd be hard for you to do it too often but perhaps once every month or every two months? I have basically no shot of seeing you in person, so the streams are as close as I can get.

Will Wight

Yes, yeah, I would be open to that. Every time I do one of these, I think...I could do that more often except then I lose my voice the next day. But other than that, I'm like, I could do this more often. 

When im not streaming im like... So I could setup a stream or I could do... anything else with my time. So, it is one of those things where I’m like... should I setup a stream or should I go write a book.

Arch (paraphrased)

Whats the mindset behind behind giving your books away for free so often, how does this lead to more sales/fans?

Will Wight (paraphrased)

Alright, so those are two different answers to be honest.

So, the mindset behind giving them away for free so often is...We can and we think people like it. That is why we started giving them away, that is why we kept giving them away. That was ever the idea came from... we were like, people like this and it's something we can do.

We expected that to cost us, we expected that to be a big issue. Especially when we give away all my books or all of a series, were like... Oh man, we are really going to see a loss in sales from that. Only it turns out we don’t, so we haven't really seen a problem with sales because of that. In a lot of cases quite the opposite, we see that the sales even while it's free that the kindle unlimited reads increase so we did not expect that.

I feel like that is two different answers because...What mindset lead to that vs what result does it have.

So then it leads to more sales than fans because people try it, people try the books and when you give away stuff for free people like it so then they recommend it to other people and word of mouth spreads.

One of the other things that has really led to more new fans than we expected is Audible having all the books on Audio and Audible Plus. We are available on Audible Plus. The Cradle series certainly and you can listen to Cradle for free as part of your subscription. We have heard from a lot of people who have discovered the series just because they were looking for something to read on Audible Plus and that cool. That was an exciting thing to learn.

Questioner

Is there a lot of romance in Bloodline?

Will Wight

Compared to the early parts of Cradle where there is no romance, yes quite a bit. Compared to a novel with a lot of romance, no.

Isaac Loredo

Just like last time I’ll ask again, How are you? You doing okay? How was the break?

Will Wight

I'm doing well, I just got off a break, the break was good it was very refreshing. It was weird because kind of after a month I was like... Ok time to get back to work! Because that is the longest break I’ve ever gotten before. Then I had a couple more weeks and I was like...Oof man I’m really glad I had more time and then I had more time. So it was good and it was very helpful and I really was able to do a lot, I’m glad I had so much time but it was odd, I don't know how to adapt to it yet and I am interested to see how the process is the next book after I recover. 

Questioner

What was day one of your vacation like?

Will Wight

It was mostly me collasping to death.

Questioner

I saw a WoW quote where you mentioned you would have rather written Cradle in first person. What would be the benefits of doing this? Do you still feel the same way?

Will Wight

By the way have I ever mentioned that I think it's really funny that word of will quotes are WoW's, I've always like that. It's kind of like calling it the Willverse, I just think that's really funny. I don’t know why that just tickles my funny bone.

I may have said that, I'm sure I did if it is in the archive but I don't know that that is necessarily true now. I think there is some advantages/disadvantages to first person. I really feel like, the reason I probably said that is because the only reason I wrote it in 3rd person wasn't an intentionally design decision based on the number of characters, it was because I had written in 3rd person before and I found it to be easier. One of the reasons I thought it to be easier, I thought later ... man I wish i had written it in 1st person was because A. That's what a lot of the web novels are because they are all from one perspective so a lot of them are in 1st person. And secondarily because I had never done it before so I thought it would push me, except in certain short stories, so I thought it would push me to learn and grow as an author and I had already written a lot of books in 3rd person, so it was just something I thought would fit kind of the... story I was going for and also push me in a way. So that is sort of what I meant by that and there are definitely pros/cons to 1st person but I now am satisfied with it being in 3rd person. Im not.. I'm fine with it

Wodan

Have you ever considered writing a detective story?

Will Wight

Here's what I have considered, I have considered writing a mystery story set in a fantasy universe...this is the comfort corner, I'm going to get my comfort back... So, I have considered writing a mystery story set in a fantasy universe. I would say that the one thing that I find very difficult about that genre is if you're writing a mystery story there is an ideal point at which the reader could figure it out but doesn't. So, they have all the information to figure it out but they don't necessarily because there are other possibilities or you kind of slight of hand them. But the problem is even in most Agatha Christie stories, and I would say she is probably the pinnacle of the... at least the most prolific in the sub-genre. A lot of times it's not really that way it really just sets it up so it could be anybody. And that's not as satisfying for me as a reader, so I don't enjoy those as much. However, the other way of doing it is way harder and I'm not sure I'm capable of doing that.

Dr. Enigma

How do you feel about the Risk of Rain 2 version of the bandit, compared to the original?

Will Wight

I was just really excited to get the bandit because they said that we were going to have...Risk of Rain 2 is a video game... and I loved Risk of Rain 1 and I really loved the bandit and when they said they were coming out with another class I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be the enforcer because they had adapted aspects of his kit into other characters. So, I had my fingers really crossed from enforcer to, enforcer-bandit. So, I was really excited.

Questioner

If you had the ability to polymorph into one mundane earth creature at will which creature would you chose?

Will Wight

I don't know, I’m thinking of... So, to illustrate to you where my imagination goes, so I immediately am like I want to pick something weird so I immediately thought of like, a jellyfish. I thought that would be like something that I'm like... Ok, you know it's extremely different from the human experience so that would be interesting. But then I think it would probably be something that I would want to be... be safe... something that it doesn’t have any natural predators. I don't know, a blue whale? But then that’s super inconvenient so... Something that is, probably like a.. a housecat probably because then people would take care of me and I wouldn't be in any danger from the natural world and I can blend in, in pretty much any environment. So, yeah that’s pretty... that would probably be my practical answer. In terms of which one would I want to turn into... hmmmm, Silverback Gorilla.

Vizslaraptor

What medium do you have the best profit margins from? We just want to make sure the most of our dollar gets into the author’s pockets.

Will Wight

Ah, ok. I appreciate that question, I know it seems like I made that question up, but I did not someone else really thought about it. So, it's purchasing the eBook that I get the most revenue from. Buying the paperback, doesn't... I get less from that than I do from an eBook sale, or a comparable amount. Reading on Kindle Unlimited does get me some, so if you don't have the money and you want to read on Kindle Unlimited by all means read it on Kindle Unlimited, I'm not stopping anybody from reading however they can get it. But yeah, if you really wanted to know what version makes me the most money it is buying the eBook.

Miro

Is there a question we forgot to ask but definitely should?

Will Wight

Yikes, I feel like that gives me the opportunity to come up with such a cool question but I can't think of it... Lets see... [Will repeats the question].[Siiiiip]

Hmmm... I cant think of anything. I wish i could... i can think of some flippant answers to that like some jokes but I want to give you a good thoughtful response to that and I can't. 

Questioner

Have you read Lupin? In the original French?

Will Wight

Yes. The original French, yes but its been a long time it was a translation I read in high school.

Ben Jason

Favourite eastern webnovel you've read?

Will Wight

See, I was sort of answering this earlier, its hard for me to answer favorite books/favorite authors. There's so many qualifiers to that and it changes based on what I'm thinking about so i mentioned a few; Coiling Dragon, I have read Mother of Learning but that’s not an eastern web novel so that doesn't count, somebody in chat mentioned Mother of Learning.so i like Coiling dragon a lot. I like, Against the gods. Someone’s asking me if I have read name of the wind, that’s another... come on man... of course, of course I have read name of the wind. Who hasn’t read the name of the wind?

So eastern novels, Coiling Dragon, I liked Against the Gods for a while... I dropped that, its kind of... I liked it for a while. And let’s see, I really liked... Second coming of Gluttony I really liked. Solo leveling, I'm the Evil Lord of an Inter-Galactic Empire, and weakest mage are the ones I’m keeping up with now. To be a power in the shadows is great.

So, people are asking me about I Shall Seal the Heavens, all these web novels people are asking me if I've read...Yes. Everybody’s asking me title by title have you read this, have you read this, I have tried... Every web novel name I have seen i have either read or tried or started to read. I have read some significant chunk of every single name that I just saw. Sooo, yes. So, there's just that some of them just aren't my cup of tea. 

I Shall Seal the Heavens is one of the ones that people talk about that is one of the classics of the genre and I have tried to read it, I have tried so many times and I always get about halfway into volume two and I just quit. I don't like it, it's not my cup of tea.

[Reads twitch Chat and laughs]

So "InfinitePool" is getting me to plug A Will Eternal, it is another good web novel on WuxiaWorld I really like.

Questioner

If the main characters of your other series (Simon, Calder, and Shera) were to move to cradle and become sacred artists, what would be their underlord revelations?

Will Wight

I can give you an off the cuff answer but not a designed answer.

I don’t know. I guess that would depend, they would have to become different people in Cradle, so that would be... They would have to adapt, so I’m not sure. 

[Talks about the need to chop wood in the video game , then repeats the question]

So I'm not sure what that would be... I can't do that off the top of my -- I was going to give you a flippant answer off the top of my head but I cant do it. I want to give it the thought it deserves but I can't answer that. Lets see... Shera's, I don't know that requires to much thought. It really requires a lot of deliberation on what really fundamentally motivates the character and that's not something im prepared to do off the top of my head. [Reads a question about Elysia but doesn't answer it then reads a suggestion on Shera's revelation from chat and laughs] Yeah probably Shera's would be "I Sleep".

Questioner

What is your favorite part of being a successful author.

Will Wight

Ooh, Huh. That’s an interesting question, that's a question I feel like I should get more often than I do. I’ve gotten it before but it's one of those I would have thought everyone wonders about.

You know this sounds cheesy but its legit true. My favorite part of being a successful author is that people are enjoying the books, seriously. The rest of it is cool... I guess, but I prefer, I honestly would rather have stayed anonymous and have nobody know who I was like Pirate Aba has managed to do because I don't particularly like the attention, I would rather just be writing books. But I really like the sort of...proof I guess that people really do like the books. They are enjoying them, and I think that's really cool. That's a really fun experience to me and the funny thing is that doesn’t really translate directly to confidence like it probably should. So, I really should be like yeah everybody likes the books, so I feel like everybody likes the books, but I don’t. I'm always super nervous about every book release people are going to be disappointed and be like...wait a second this guy has no idea what he is doing so... Yup, so that's my favorite part of it.

Questioner

I've really enjoyed seeing the abidan heavenly universe see development and expansion over different series as they edge. Do you think we'll ever reach the point where a novel (or series) is entirely set in the outer universe where the Abidan and Vroshir openly operate?

Will Wight

Yes absolutely, I do think... someone’s asking me, will there be an Abidan Series? Absolutely there will, one of the big problems... its controversial the Abidan sections in cradle which make total sense because they don't directly contribute to the main plot...yet. So, I understand why those are controversial, I get that. That was a design decision I made early in Cradle’s process, and I stuck to it. I don't know if that was the correct decision or not, I guess history will tell. But if I do one in the Abidan world or worlds, that would the primary universe. So, I would like to do that but probably not, that’s probably not going to be the next thing, I probably want to do just something completely unrelated. 

Questioner

Are we going to get a WillVerse version of the Avengers, as in people from different book series crossover and meet in series beyond.

Will Wight

That was never my intention, I never intended to do that, it was never my design but I also, as I get to know the characters and flush them out and I get to know the universe more it is something I could see potentially doing at some point. Just because if I end up getting a really good idea for it that I think is fun and I do it, the big problem with that is the actual Avengers (the marvel movies) require you to watch 20 movies right, and really only like 12 of them are really necessary but still that’s a lot of movies. However, that’s a total investment time of like 40 hours as opposed to reading 20 books which would take probably twice that. So, its more of an exception, much less reading a bunch of different series so I don't know how practical it is because then people would be like...Who's that character? So, I don’t know, but it might be fun. It's not something that I am married to, or necessarily against. It seems like the kind of thing that would be hostile to new readers, you know what I mean? It's like oh yeah you have to have read all these other series to read... cool, cool, cool.

Questioner

Have you played D&D or Pathfinder?

Will Wight

Yes. So I played a lot of D&D. This is my jam. I really like 5th edition, was big fan. Always been a fan of 4th edition though. Nobody else like 4th edition, I was a big fan of fourth edition. The one of my big favourite things in fourth edition of D&D ,for those of you who don't know ,was that one  a lot more like gamier. So it was a lot more like a video game than a table top game. But that entirely depends on how you play it. So you can 100% play it however  you want to and then just use the mechanical powers like they give you like they don't aren't telling you how to play the game. You can do whatever you want. So what I liked about it  was that all the classes were very balanced and you can spend a long time making characters which is just a lot of fun to do. So I really like the fourth edition of DND because the classes were balanced and you can spend forever making a character and it was just fun to have bunch of powers early. So one of the problems with 5th edition is basically  all characters feel the same with some few exceptions.

(Almost drowns)

In fifth edition one of the big problem is basically all characters plays exactly the same regardless what your class is for the fist couple of levels so that can be frustrating.

(swimming levels up)

But I really like fifth edition. It's my favorite edition, I really enjoy it. I'm hopping the 6th edition is really just a refined version of 5th edition.

But you also ask D&D or Pathfinder. And someone else is asking right now - Have you have tried Pathfinder 2nd edition?

I have. I was not impressed. I didn't like it very much. I was expecting and hoping for that they had taken a lot of advancement that D&D 5th edition came up with and they had moved it forward from there. But instead they started way back  at the second pathfinder and kinda moved it forward. They sorta moved it from Pathfinder - the original which is based on 3.5 edition D&D and to one that is more like 4th edition D&D so they are kinda like ten years behind is what it feltlike to me. I really didn't like it. There were a few little elements that I liked that  were action economy thing where you have the different uh- It was just very intuitive, it's a lot better than move, standard, minor. I liked that. 

I also thought that it was weird that races were called ancestries. I mean biomes don't call them  races but con species, that's what they are. So it felt like calling them ancestries was just a way to get it to spell out ABC which I thought was just  kinda odd. That was a nitpick. But I just didn't enjoy it very much. I thought I was disappointed. I had real high expectation for Pathfinder 2nd edition. I was like oh man they are about to show wizards (D&D publisher : Wizards of the Coast) how to do fifth edition right. And then instead they were instead like - here's how to do fourth edition. Wrong! So I was disappointed.